"My name is Frankfort Weldon--Captain Weldon," said the handsome soldier--introducing himself. "I think you have annoyed Miss Ottley, Dr. Pinsent. Seems to me you should have consulted her before acting, at least." I glanced from one to the other and shrugged my shoulders. "The thing is done," said I. "Gentlemen, good-day." My long legs left them quickly in the rear. There seemed no good reason to waste time in explaining myself to them. They would soon enough find out the reasonableness of my actions for themselves, if possessed of ordinary human curiosity. But a second later I stopped and turned. "Dr. Belleville," I shouted, "I shall fix a watch at the temple. Ottley wishes it maintained. Miss Ottley will tell you why." I found the fellaheen collected in a group near the old store house. They eyed me approaching with open sullenness. I chose two among their number and directed them to stand guard before the pylon for four hours. The two I had picked moved off obediently enough, but they were stopped almost on instant by their leader, a big ruffian with a scarred, black face and wild, fiercely scowling eyes. Sir Robert Ottley's dragoman hurried to my side. "Softly, Excellency, or there will be trouble," he muttered. "Let me speak to them. Yazouk is a chief--he will not be commanded. His term of service does not start till to-morrow. He is angry." "Silence, you," I responded in the same tone. "There is but one way to crush a nigger mutiny." I stepped smilingly forward, looking into Yazouk's eyes. The black giant--he stood six feet four in his bare feet and was a splendid physical specimen--put his hand on the knife in his belt. But before he could guess at my intention he was sprawling on the sand. He uttered the yell of an angry wild beast and, springing up, rushed at me with bare blade. I stepped aside and kicked him in the stomach. He collapsed, howling dismally. I marched up to the rest, who were all handling their knives, and showed them my revolver. Two minutes later they were all disarmed and I was a walking arsenal. I turned to the dragoman. "I am going away, Mehemet--to my own camp. But so that you will have no trouble with this scum, I shall take their chief with me. I need a servant." Mehemet bowed to the very ground. "Your Excellency knows best," he muttered reverently. "Yazouk," said I, "yonder is my ass. Go saddle him for me."